Various embodiments of this disclosure relate to database management systems and, more particularly, to hardware projection of fixed and variable length columns of database records.
Projection refers to the process of parsing records (i.e., rows) of a database table to select certain fields from the records and arrange them in a specified manner. This is generally performed to report the rearranged fields to an application, or to enable more effective sorting of the records over a sort key that has been arranged as needed in the projection results. In current database management systems (DBMSs), projection is generally performed in software and incurs variable costs on the central processing unit (CPU), depending on the type, length, and position of the columns projected.